scholarly journals The topography of alpha-band activity tracks the content of spatial working memory

2016 ◽  
Vol 115 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua J. Foster ◽  
David W. Sutterer ◽  
John T. Serences ◽  
Edward K. Vogel ◽  
Edward Awh
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Sample Stimulus ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Total Power ◽  
Spatial Representations ◽  
Alpha Band ◽  
Online Storage ◽  
Band Activity ◽  
Topographic Distribution

Working memory (WM) is a system for the online storage of information. An emerging view is that neuronal oscillations coordinate the cellular assemblies that code the content of WM. In line with this view, previous work has demonstrated that oscillatory activity in the alpha band (8–12 Hz) plays a role in WM maintenance, but the exact contributions of this activity have remained unclear. Here, we used an inverted spatial encoding model in combination with electroencephalography (EEG) to test whether the topographic distribution of alpha-band activity tracks spatial representations held in WM. Participants in three experiments performed spatial WM tasks that required them to remember the precise angular location of a sample stimulus for 1,000-1,750 ms. Across all three experiments, we found that the topographic distribution of alpha-band activity tracked the specific location that was held in WM. Evoked (i.e., activity phase-locked to stimulus onset) and total (i.e., activity regardless of phase) power across a range of low-frequency bands transiently tracked the location of the sample stimulus following stimulus onset. However, only total power in the alpha band tracked the content of spatial WM throughout the memory delay period, which enabled reconstruction of location-selective channel tuning functions (CTFs). These findings demonstrate that alpha-band activity is directly related to the coding of spatial representations held in WM and provide a promising method for tracking the content of this online memory system.

Stimulus-induced Alpha Suppression Tracks the Difficulty of Attentional Selection, Not Visual Working Memory Storage

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sisi Wang ◽  
Emma E. Megla ◽  
Geoffrey F. Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Alpha Band ◽  
Perceptual Attention ◽  
Band Activity

Human alpha-band activity (8–12 Hz) has been proposed to index a variety of mechanisms during visual processing. Here, we distinguished between an account in which alpha suppression indexes selective attention versus an account in which it indexes subsequent working memory storage. We manipulated two aspects of the visual stimuli that perceptual attention is believed to mitigate before working memory storage: the potential interference from distractors and the size of the focus of attention. We found that the magnitude of alpha-band suppression tracked both of these aspects of the visual arrays. Thus, alpha-band activity after stimulus onset is clearly related to how the visual system deploys perceptual attention and appears to be distinct from mechanisms that store target representations in working memory.

scholarly journals Visual predictions, neural oscillations and naïve physics

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Blake W. Saurels ◽  
Wiremu Hohaia ◽  
Kielan Yarrow ◽  
Alan Johnston ◽  
Derek H. Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Internal Models ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Alpha Band ◽  
Core Property ◽  
Ball Tracking ◽  
Band Activity

AbstractPrediction is a core function of the human visual system. Contemporary research suggests the brain builds predictive internal models of the world to facilitate interactions with our dynamic environment. Here, we wanted to examine the behavioural and neurological consequences of disrupting a core property of peoples’ internal models, using naturalistic stimuli. We had people view videos of basketball and asked them to track the moving ball and predict jump shot outcomes, all while we recorded eye movements and brain activity. To disrupt people’s predictive internal models, we inverted footage on half the trials, so dynamics were inconsistent with how movements should be shaped by gravity. When viewing upright videos people were better at predicting shot outcomes, at tracking the ball position, and they had enhanced alpha-band oscillatory activity in occipital brain regions. The advantage for predicting upright shot outcomes scaled with improvements in ball tracking and occipital alpha-band activity. Occipital alpha-band activity has been linked to selective attention and spatially-mapped inhibitions of visual brain activity. We propose that when people have a more accurate predictive model of the environment, they can more easily parse what is relevant, allowing them to better target irrelevant positions for suppression—resulting in both better predictive performance and in neural markers of inhibited information processing.

scholarly journals Examining encoding biases in visual working memory using alpha band activity

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 1248
Author(s):  
Gisella Diaz ◽  
Edward Vogel ◽  
Edward Awh
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Alpha Band ◽  
Band Activity

scholarly journals Spatial selectivity of alpha band activity declines with increasing visual working memory load

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 332
Author(s):  
David Sutterer ◽  
Joshua Foster ◽  
Kirsten Adam ◽  
Edward Vogel ◽  
Edward Awh
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Alpha Band ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Spatial Selectivity ◽  
Band Activity

scholarly journals Decoding hierarchical control of sequential behavior in oscillatory EEG activity

eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsushi Kikumoto ◽  
Ulrich Mayr
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Hierarchical Control ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Time Resolved ◽  
Eeg Activity ◽  
Action Sequences ◽  
Oscillatory Eeg ◽  
Hierarchical Representations ◽  
Band Activity

Despite strong theoretical reasons for assuming that abstract representations organize complex action sequences in terms of subplans (chunks) and sequential positions, we lack methods to directly track such content-independent, hierarchical representations in humans. We applied time-resolved, multivariate decoding analysis to the pattern of rhythmic EEG activity that was registered while participants planned and executed individual elements from pre-learned, structured sequences. Across three experiments, the theta and alpha-band activity coded basic elements and abstract control representations, in particular, the ordinal position of basic elements, but also the identity and position of chunks. Further, a robust representation of higher level, chunk identity information was only found in individuals with above-median working memory capacity, potentially providing a neural-level explanation for working-memory differences in sequential performance. Our results suggest that by decoding oscillatory activity we can track how the cognitive system traverses through the states of a hierarchical control structure.

scholarly journals Working memory reconstructions using alpha-band activity are disrupted by sensory input.

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 334
Author(s):  
Tom Bullock ◽  
Mary MacLean ◽  
Barry Giesbrecht
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Alpha Band ◽  
Band Activity

scholarly journals Frequency-Selective Oscillatory Control of Working Memory Robustness to Distractors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikita Novikov ◽  
Boris Gutkin
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Active State ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Alpha Band ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Excitatory Effect ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Band Activity

Working memory (WM) is the brain's ability to retain information that is not directly available from the sensory systems. WM retention is accompanied by sustained firing rate modulation and changes of the large-scale oscillatory profile. Among other changes, beta-band activity elevates in task-related regions, presumably stabilizing WM retention. Alpha-band activity, in turn, is stronger in task-irrelevant regions, serving to protect WM trace from distracting information. Although a large body of experimental evidence links neural oscillations to WM functions, theoretical understanding of their interrelations is still incomplete. In this study, we used a computational approach to explore a potential role of beta and alpha oscillations in control of WM stability. First, we examined a single bistable module that served as a discrete object representation and was resonant in the beta-band in the active state. We demonstrated that beta-band input produced differentially stronger excitatory effect on the module in the active state compared to the background state, while this difference decreased with the input frequency. We then considered a system of two competing modules, selective for a stimulus and for a distractor, respectively. We simulated a task, in which a stimulus was loaded into the first module, then an identical oscillatory input to both modules was turned on, after which a distractor was presented to the second module. We showed that beta-band input prevented loading of high-amplitude distractors and erasure of the stimulus from WM. On the contrary, alpha-band input promoted loading of low-amplitude distractors and the stimulus erasure. In summary, we demonstrated that stability of WM trace could be controlled by global oscillatory input in a frequency-dependent manner via controlling the level of competition between stimulus-encoding and distractor-encoding circuits. Such control is possible due to difference in the resonant and non-linear properties between the background and the active states.

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